Many of many friends have reported issues with the phone freezing. I'm a little short on cash, and this is right in my price range. Does the phone have any common problems? Anything making it an unworthy buy?

We didn't have problems with ours crashing in the 3 weeks we used it. There was a firmware upgrade released for the original Chocolate (if the phone you get doesn't have the latest firmware, Verizon stores can upgrade it for you). That firmware added speakerphone, no mention of bug fixes.